MarketSource: Tablets To Keep On Fizzing

By Joseph Palenchar On Mar 21 2011 - 4:01am

ATLANTA – Consumer demand for tablets is high, but most consumers interested in buying one don’t want to pay more than $500, a MarketSource survey finds.

Like current tablet owners, most consumers interested in purchasing a tablet in the next 12 months will use it primarily for personal rather than business use, and most consumers interested in purchasing will use it mainly to browse the web, send and receive email, and read e-books, the survey shows.

MarketSource, a provider of integrated sales and marketing services and market research, conducted the nationwide online survey exclusively for TWICE. The company compiled responses in late February from adults in 501 households, yielding a sample size considered statistically accurate at a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of +/- 5 percent.

In the survey, MarketSource found that 16 percent of adults surveyed already own a tablet, and most of them (91 percent) own an Apple iPad, which became available in spring 2010.

Among the 84 percent of adults who don’t have a tablet, 45 percent plan to buy one in the next 12 months, MarketSource said. Among consumers interested in buying, 86 percent said they would consider brands other than Apple, and 54 percent prefer a model with both Wi-Fi and embedded cellular.

Current users: The majority of tablet owners are between 26 and 45 years of age. Sixty-two percent are male, 32 percent are in college or are college-educated, and 88 percent have household incomes of more than $50,000.

Among these owners, 17 percent consider themselves innovators, 27 percent consider themselves early adopters, 45 percent consider themselves to be early majority buyers, and 10 percent consider themselves late majority buyers.

MarketSource defined innovators as people who aggressively pursue new technology products, while early adopters buy new CE products very early upon their release. Early majority purchasers are content to wait and see how other people are making out with a product before buying it for themselves. Late majority buyers are also content to wait and see how other people are making out with the product before buying for themselves, but these consumers want to know that there will be a lot of product support available when they do decide to purchase.

Laggards are simply not interested in new CE technology/technologies.

The owners who considered themselves innovators were more likely to use their tablets primarily for business use than for personal use, whereas 51 percent of early majority owners and 50 percent of late majority owners said they use their tablet primarily for practical personal uses.

However they define themselves, 46 percent of current owners said the No. 1 use for their tablet is web browsing (46 percent), while 32 percent said their top use was emailing. Seven percent said their top use was reading e-books, and 5 percent said watching video. Playing games and editing documents each came in at 2 percent.

Future owners: Among the 45 percent of non-owners who want to buy a tablet in the next 12 months, the top planned uses are emailing and web browsing, followed closely by reading e-books.

When asked what they would use their tablet for, 98 percent said emailing, 97 percent said web browsing, and 77 percent said e-book reading.

Large majorities, however, also plan to use their tablets for multiple other reasons. For example, 72 percent said they’d use it to watch videos, 70 percent would listen to music, 66 percent would edit documents, and 65 percent would play games.

A large minority of users — 47 percent — said they’d also use their tablets for video chats, and 40 percent said they’d use them for Internet voice calling.

Spending cap: Among the consumers planning to buy a tablet in the next year, a large majority — 58 percent – said they aren’t willing to spend more than $500, but 34 percent would be willing to pay from more than $500 to $800. Only 8 percent would be willing to spend more than $800 to $1,100.

Consumers not interested in purchasing a tablet cited multiple reasons. When asked to choose among five reasons mentioned to them, 47 percent said a laptop was all they needed. Thirty-three percent said tablets were too costly, 9 percent said they have too many electronic devices, 8 percent said a smartphone performs all the same functions, and 4 percent said a netbook was all they needed.

MarketSource also asked purchase intenders to indicate whether they would be buying a tablet to replace a laptop or netbook. The survey found that people who described themselves as early adopters and early majority buyers are more likely to buy a tablet to replace a laptop, whereas innovators are more likely to buy a tablet to replace a netbook. The results suggest that innovators, “who tend to be more technologically sophisticated, may be more inclined to use both their laptop and tablet but for very different functions,” whereas less technologically sophisticated early adopters and early majority buyers would prefer to use only one tool for all planned functions, MarketSource said.